why in vietnam was the war called the american war

Bush failed to draw lessons from Vietnam and fell into some of the same traps that the US government had encountered in Vietnam. Though very different in nature, the parallels between the recent wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan and the Vietnam war have helped ensure Vietnam’s continued relevance to foreign policy decisions. The quick victory led Bush to declare: “By God, we have kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all.” For President Bill Clinton putting US boots on the ground was an option to avoid at all costs as he declared during the 1998-99 Kosovo war. To ensure that US intervention had the moral legitimacy Vietnam had lacked, he secured UN backing and led a coalition of 35 countries to swiftly eject Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. Bush was careful to prevent the Gulf War of 1990-91 from turning into another Vietnam. A year later, following the death of 241 US servicemen in Beirut barracks, Reagan withdrew US forces from Lebanon because he didn’t want to repeat the Vietnam experience in the Middle East. Reagan’s military intervention in Grenada in 1983 was wrapped in secrecy to head off any pre-emptive action by the communist dictatorship in control of the island but also to prevent an anti-interventionist Congress from leaking to the press with the prediction that Grenada was going to become another Vietnam. People visiting the Vietnam war memorial in Washington DC. Vietnam had divided the nation and turned it into the world’s bully.

The “ good war” against the fascist powers in Germany, Italy and Japan had united the country in a fight to save democracy and freedom and made it the leader of the free world. Vietnam had been a very different experience from the second world war. Disturbing televised images of conditions on the ground and war atrocities made them question the wisdom and the morality of US foreign policy. They had to come to terms with the reality that for the first time in the country’s history, they had lost a war. Thousands of US veterans suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and tried to readjust on their return home.Īmericans struggled to make sense of events in Vietnam. Estimates of Vietnamese deaths are more than 3 million civilians and soldiers from both sides. Over almost 20 years, more than 2.7 million Americans served in uniform in the conflict, and around 58,318 lost their lives. 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the US withdrawal from Vietnam and the war still casts long shadows over American life.

Why in vietnam was the war called the american war